Katelyn's Party

Another thing that has been special this summer is having Caroline's cousin, Katelyn, come to our house most days. Caroline has loved having a bigger kid around to play with her. Before Katelyn moves back to AZ she wanted to have an early birthday party with her Mississippi friends. she wanted a makeover party, so Ryan asked if I would stay and help.

I painted all the girl's nails and they did each others hair and makeup!

Katelyn was Caroline's last remaining cousin in the area! She's very sad that Katelyn's moving back to AZ but they had a lot of fun together this summer. The timing works out pretty well though since I start babysitting the boys again next week! Never a dull moment!

Swim Lessons

We've been keeping pretty busy this summer. One of the things that has occupied our weeks are swim lessons. I had a total of 14 students and we held lessons twice a week. It was a lot of fun, a lot of work and a big learning experience for me - I learned that I don't have as much energy as I did 10 years ago when I first started teaching! But I loved all my kids and they really made me laugh. Here are some pictures from our "end of the season party":

Family Date Night

This week we went to see a stage production of "Bye Bye Birdie" as a family.
There were a few members of our ward in it and they did wonderful!

Caroline was so excited to see her friends on stage - she kept pointing and waving to them!

It was a lot of fun and Caroline was glued the whole time.

I'm so glad Caroline likes to go to musicals and I'm glad that Dave is at least willing!

4th of July

The 4th of July always makes me a little homesick when I'm not with my family. Mostly because I know exactly where they are and what they're doing and that they are all together having a great time. But we did manage to have a good weekend here in the South.

One good thing about the 4th here is that you can buy your own fireworks! (which is illegal in AZ)


So we bought about $10 worth of sparklers, bottle rockets, and other dangerous toys and had some fun in the backyard.

I love this one of Caroline watching Dave set some of the bigger ones off.



All dressed in red, white, and blue for church.

Watching fireworks from a lawn next to CVS - what? it was a great view!